


Triptych- Future

by LoveChilde



Category: Da Vinci's Demons
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, F/M, Family History, Future Fic, Romance, These deaths are not a spoiler, Wikipedia helped me write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 19:43:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1316989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveChilde/pseuds/LoveChilde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They will have twenty years together, and they will love, and they will be remembered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Triptych- Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Umbralpilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umbralpilot/gifts).



You will grow to love him, and he you, against all expectations, even your own. You will be married almost twenty years, and you will know, even when his attentions stray from you, even when he writes his poetry to Lucrezia Donati, and all of Florence thinks he has abandoned you, that he loves you still. 

You will even like Lucrezia. It’ll hardly be her fault that Lorenzo is a man, and you will find it hard to hate her. 

You will bear him ten children in nice years, in pain and blood and joy. He will love and cherish them all, even the three who will barely live long enough to be christened. Only six of your children will grow to adulthood, but you will live to see two of them married, you will live to hold your grandchild. They will all be yours, your one legacy in this world, so cruel and indifferent even to women of station and power and wealth. You will teach them all you can, see that they marry well, or go into the Church, and that they are pious and learned, balancing your faith and Lorenzo’s more liberal, humanistic approach. 

You will hold Lorenzo’s hand at Giuliano’s funeral, will return from Pistoia without the children to be at his side in this, will stand there, silent, as he is. Later, in private, you will watch and he will rage, throw things, scream, and finally collapse weeping in your arms. And you will know him to be human, with human wants and grief and regrets, and you will know you are one of very few who are allowed to see him thus, and you will grieve with him. 

There will always be artists at your table. Leonardo, brilliant and troubled and maybe just a little bit insane- you will sometimes not understand him, sometimes pity him, and always be a little in awe of his intellect. He will leave Florence for Rome before you die, and others will replace him in the Medici palace. Lorenzo will be a great patron of the arts, will spend more than he has on commissions and on building churches and palaces. Florence will grow with you, expand along with your family and your love, into a shining beacon of light and learning, art and faith and freedom. Sometimes, you will regret it is not more spiritual, as Rome is, a very earthly paradise, moved be selfish, earthly desires.   
You will cement your power in Florence. Some people will never like you- you will always be too religious, too sober for their wild tastes, a bastion of faith even when the Pope places the city under interdict, and you have to bribe a priest to ear Mass said in secret. You will support Lorenzo even when he grows further away from the church, when his philosophy becomes too extreme, in your views, because it is your duty. He will grow in strength, and you will not live to see him in his decline, anyway. 

You will die, alone, with a physician and a priest at your side, choking on your own blood, with his name on your lips. 

\---

She will die before you, quite suddenly, and you will grieve for her. You will commission painting in her honor, and have Mass said and hundreds of candles lit, not because you will be comforted by it, but because you will know she would wish it so. You will do many things because you will know she wishes it so, some of which she will never know of, and that will please you. It will be a fine line to tread, pleasing your wife without seeming weak or henpecked, without risking your power and your city. Fortunately, her wishes will often be the best thing for the city. You will sometimes be forced to admit, to yourself, in private, that she is as good as you are at the political game, and an invaluable asset when dealing with Rome. 

She will not live to see your son made cardinal at the tender age of 13. She will not live you see him made Pope- but then, neither will you. She will not live to meet Michaelangelo, who will become a household favorite in the last years or your life. She will die, hoping that Piero will be a worthy successor of the Medici line- as will you, in your turn. Neither one of you will live to see the shambles Piero leaves of your once-glorious city, to witness his failures.

You will love her, through your lives together, even when other catch your fancy. You will love her when she dies, and you will love her still, some years later, when it is your turn to go. You will make sure she is remembered, that you will not be remembered alone. You will be known as Il Magnifico even in your lifetime, and you will want her to be remembered equally well. 

History will remember you both, the future will hear your names, in classes, in lectures, in guided tours of the city you made great. They will see the churches you had built, the painting and palaces you commissioned. They will marvel at the great cathedral in Rome that your son, the Pope, will rebuild. They will remember you as a champion and a leader in war, in philosophy, in trade, in arts. They will remember Clarice as cold, too religious, unsuited to the glittering jewel that was Florence. you will know this memory to be wrong, but will not care, by then.

But in your lives and after them, you will love, and be loved. And that is most important. 

 

Clarice Orsini, by Sandro Boticelli

Lorenzo de Medici by Agnolo Bronzino

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this takes place some 500 years ago, and thus the deaths are not a spoiler but a foregone conclusion. My thanks to Wikipedia for providing most of the necessary information. My interpretation is somewhat different from history's, but more suited to the show canon, I hope.


End file.
